How to Make Thick Curd/Yoghurt at Home — Easy Step-by-step Method

I was just talking to my kids yesterday about the simpler days of my own childhood. My mum was well versed in cooking as many of you already know. She would prepare almost everything from scratch. From potato chips to paneer and dahi, from multiple pickles to chaats, from spice powders to chutneys, come to think of it, it was pretty amazing, not to mention time consuming. These days we are lucky to have so many gadgets and packaged foods that reduce cooking toil. But, of late, I am turning to doing a number of things from scratch. The obvious reasons are health, freshness and nutrition. One of the habits I had lost was of making curd or dahi at home. I buy Nandini dahi or even the thick curd that one gets packaged. But yesterday, I had extra milk at home and decided to make dahi. That led to some interesting conversations. 🙂

Curd or dahi is made with dahi culture and warm milk. It may seem like a super easy process but it requires a bit of trial and error and understanding of the method. Also, if you get the habit of setting your curd at night, you will end up with thick set and sweet curd by morning. I will share how you can do that.

Here is how to make thick curd at home with my tips:

Ingredients:

1 litre whole milk (I use cow’s milk)

1 tbsp.
curd culture

Method to Make Thick Curd at Home:

Heat the
milk till it boils. Some people simmer it on low heat to thicken it further.

Now let the
milk cool down so that your milk is lukewarm. My test is to insert a clean
finger. You should be able to bear the temperature of the milk while it feeling
warm.

Now froth the milk. I do this by transferring milk from one pan to another for 4-5 times till the milk is frothy. Then I add the culture to the milk and toss it once or twice more till assimilated.

Now, leave for the curd to set in a warm place for 5-8 hours depending upon how how or cold the climate is.

You will get thick curd to consume. Refrigerate as soon as the curd sets.

Pro Tips:

Use whole milk for a thicker set curd. As I mentioned, you could further simmer the milk for 10 minutes to make sure that it is thick when set. Make sure you don’t burn the milk.

Use good culture and bring it to room temperature before adding to the milk. You can use anywhere between 1 tsp. to 1 tbsp. culture for 1 litre or 34 oz. of milk.

Do not use sour curd culture or your curd will turn out sour.

Frothing the milk makes it set thick. Also setting it in an earthen vessel gives a nice thick set curd. You could use a metal container too.

If you live in a very cold place then you may take more hours to get set curd. Leave your milk vessel in a slightly wam place like an oven with the light on to expedite the process. You may also put it in a casserole for faster setting.

Some people add a broken dry red chilli in the milk while setting to make thick curd. I haven’t tried this trick and no it will not make your curd spicy.

The consistency of your curd will depend upon the kind of milk you use. I use packaged milk. Those using milk straight from the dairy may find a different consistency.

If you have never set curd before, try this method (maybe 2-3 times to get the hang of exact process) and you will have delicious thick curd at home.

How to Make Thick Curd or Yoghurt at Home

This is a post that details how you can make thick curd or yoghurt at home. It has my handy tips and the easy method to get it right every time.

Course
Dairy

Cuisine
Indian

Keyword
make thick curd at home, set curd at home

recipe
make thick curd at home

Cook Time10minutes

Setting Time8hours

Total Time10minutes

Servings5people

Calories117kcal

AuthorRachna Parmar

Ingredients

1litre whole milkI use cow’s milk

1tbsp.curd culture

Instructions

Heat the milk till it boils. Some people simmer it on low heat to thicken it further.

Now let the milk cool down so that your milk is lukewarm. My test is to insert a clean finger. You should be able to bear the temperature of the milk while it feeling warm.

Now froth the milk. I do this by transferring milk from one pan to another for 4-5 times till the milk is frothy. Then I add the culture to the milk and toss it once or twice more till assimilated.

Now, leave for the curd to set in a warm place for 5-8 hours depending upon how how or cold the climate is.

You will get thick curd to consume. Refrigerate as soon as the curd sets.

Recipe Notes

Use whole milk for a thicker set curd. As I mentioned, you could further simmer the milk for 10 minutes to make sure that it is thick when set. Make sure you don’t burn the milk.

Use good culture and bring it to room temperature before adding to the milk. You can use anywhere between 1 tsp. to 1 tbsp. culture for 1 litre or 34 oz. of milk.

Do not use sour curd culture or your curd will turn out sour.

Frothing the milk makes it set thick. Also setting it in an earthen vessel gives a nice thick set curd. You could use a metal container too.

If you live in a very cold place then you may take more hours to get set curd. Leave your milk vessel in a slightly wam place like an oven with the light on to expedite the process. You may also put it in a casserole for faster setting.

Some people add a broken dry red chilli in the milk while setting to make thick curd. I haven’t tried this trick and no it will not make your curd spicy.

The consistency of your curd will depend upon the kind of milk you use. I use packaged milk. Those using milk straight from the dairy may find a different consistency.

If you have never set curd before, try this method (maybe 2-3 times to get the hang of exact process) and you will have delicious thick curd at home.

Nutrition Facts

How to Make Thick Curd or Yoghurt at Home

Amount Per Serving

Calories 117Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Fat 6g9%

Saturated Fat 4g25%

Cholesterol 25mg8%

Sodium 88mg4%

Potassium 298mg9%

Carbohydrates 8g3%

Sugar 8g9%

Protein 6g12%

Vitamin A 190IU4%

Vitamin C 1mg1%

Calcium 233mg23%

Iron 0.1mg1%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Do let me know if you tried this method. What was your experience?

In case you
found the post helpful and tried this method, I request you to give it a star *
rating on the recipe card or in the comments. Thanks.

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Back home we only have curd that are set in these earthen pots. It’s very popular there. The creamy layer on the top was so delicious and pure. The curd you have set looks amazing. Reminds me of mishti doi 🙂

Ah I wish I had read this post before. Last month I decided to make my own curd at home and went through quite a lot of hell before getting it right! It did not set at all the first two times as I was using store bought curd as the starter. Many websites and youtube videos later I made my own starter using milk and green chillies with stalks. That came out well. Using that I made a litre of curd that set thick and beautiful!

As harrowing as the process was, it taught me a lot, not just about curd making about life as well. I’ll do a post about it someday.

Since then I have been making fresh curd at home and it is so delicious when compared to the store bought ones.

Sorry that you had to go through that. But so happy that you got it right eventually. You are a fighter, Soumya. Eventually you make things fall in place. And you are right, homemade curd is just so good.